Abstract
Intraoperative awareness is hard on both patients and anesthesiologists. In this paper, several awareness cases are presented prior to the main discussion in the symposium of the monitoring for prevention of intraoperative awareness. Potential awareness cases which were noticed by electroencephalogram (EEG) monitoring are also presented.
The main etiology of awareness is inadequate hypnotic and/or analgesic actions in a relative or absolute manner. Improper equipment or anesthesiologist human errors should be avoided. It is desirable to standardize anesthetic management to avoid primary mishaps.
The processed EEG, such as BIS, is valuable in particular when the patient is paralyzed, since the electromyogram is reduced and they can't move to express awareness when muscle relaxants are used.
When an anesthesiologist recognizes patient awareness, what is the best measure for the patient? Repeated explanations that awareness is inevitable and is under anesthesiologist control are desirable. The author believes that this might alleviate psychological harm to the patient.
